As I search for information about why my ancestor Corbley lost his farm, I find information on a lawsuit filed by a person named Wilson against Corbley for slander. The case went on to be used as a foundation of law as it was reversed by the supreme court at one point. The law review book shown here describes the case as being originally lost by Corbley when Wilson presented a court case of the act Corbley had ‘accused’ him of and that the end result of the criminal case was not guilty.

When the case was appealed at the supreme court it was decided that the result of the criminal case had no baring on the slander case, so the original finding was reversed.

Each time the case was decided or reversed the case at the time made the paper being big news at the time. I haven’t found so far where to find the specifics of the trial case – what was Corbley accused of saying about Wilson? I do know that Edward Corbley’s brother Lindsey was a lawyer and would have been surprised if he had not taken on a case involving his brother. From what I know now, the plaintiff in a case normal doesn’t have to pay out until all appeals are resolved… So I would think from all of this that Corbley never had to pay out to Wilson. Lawyer fees would have been another matter.

None of the articles I’ve found so far include Wilson’s full name or the crime he was originally accused of. I’m not completely positive of the year also….

The Supreme Court case was decided in 1878 (10/7) and in the paper is listed as Edward Corbley vs. Benj. Wilson. So I am guessing Wilson’s name was Benjamin. Muncie had been platted in 1875 and Corbley’s farm was sold for bankruptcy in 1881 (Sept). Corbley was next found in Missouri in 1884. His residence was listed in Missouri at the time he passed away in Illinois in 1891. Interestingly enough his wife passed away in 1885 in Kankakee Illinois. My great grandmother (their daughter) had married just a few years before (1882), so it may have been that Mary Ann Littler Corbley stayed, not wanting to leave her daughter and new grandchildren. She may also have been in ill health. Kankakee was the location of a hospital at the time. Maybe even the selling of the farm caused health issues?

When looking up family history I keep running into family with the same name. The most recent is Edwin Littler. Edwin Littler is my g-grandfather a few generations ago – Mary Ann Littler (wife of Edward Corbly)’s father – his son is also Edwin Littler.

In Stearns Cemetery is the tombstone for Edwin Littler with no birth or death information. It does include information about Civil War Service though.

Edwin is listed as being in the 125th Il US Infantry which matches his tombstone. He joined August 11,1882, mustered September 3, 1862 and was declared dead on November 25, 1862 at Bowling Green, KY. It includes that he was 19, with black hair, light complexion, dark eyes, and was 5’8″.

Not knowing a lot about the battles in the civil war I am lost as far as cause of death. According to a civil war driving tour write up:

By late 1861, Bowling Green became the heart of the Confederacy’s efforts in Kentucky. The new year brought serious worries to the Confederate occupation force. A Union victory at Mill Springs in Eastern Kentucky, on January 19, 1862, and General Grant’s victories at Forts Henry and Donelson to the west, made Bowling Green untenable for the Confederates. Union General Don Carlos Buell advanced his Army of the Ohio southward from the Green River. Under the command of General Ormsby Mitchel, Bowling Green was bombarded from across the Barren River. The Confederate army evacuated the city, and by mid-February 1862, the city fell into Union hands. Federal troops controlled Bowling Green and Kentucky for the rest of the war. By 1864, there was a vigorous effort by the federal government to recruit and enlist slaves in Kentucky. Bowling Green and seven other military camps were designated to receive and protect those recruits. Source

This makes me wonder if there was a push in November by the Confederate army to take back Bowling Green, or possibly Edwin was sent out with troops to take more ground and wounded in battle – returned to Bowling Green for care and to ultimately pass away.

Edwin’s father, also being named Edwin was more difficult to find in history. He had moved from Ohio, bringing the young Edwin as a child, and set up residence in Vermilion County. Some database records have him recorded as Edward also, making identification a more difficult task. Currently I’ve identified Edwin the father in the 1840 and the 1850 census files.

Verifying that ancestors with the same name and place can be difficult. When in doubt I have been linking information to both individuals and editing later. Not the most ideal, but definitely helpful to keep from losing information. Original sources are critical also.

I always wonder when I find information about infants that died and what the circumstances were. My ancestor Edward Corbly that I have been researching had an interesting case in his history. My ancestor, his daughter Julia was the only surviving daughter. In the family bible though is listed a set of twins, interesting and conflicting information is found after that. With children that died as babies or toddlers, often only family anecdotal information, or gravestones are available.

The bible looked to me as if the twins were born on September 4, 1860 and passing out of this life on September 4, 1862. I normally would have assumed that they died in childbirth if i wasn’t for the 2 year gap (exactly 2 years for both making it very confusing). For twins to die on their birthdate, and both on the same day seems highly unusual. My g-grandmother then was born in 1863.

To add to the confusion, someone that has added the gravestones (no pictures) to FindaGrave, has added Edwin as d. 9/4/1862 and Ella d. 9/4/1892. This is in Tomlinson Cemetery in Illinois (Champaign County). There are no other records of Ella, including in the 1870 census, so I’m sure that the death date from her tombstone is a typo, with the family bible verifying this. This is still a family mystery that is lost to time.

Interestingly enough family lore has it that Julia went on to have a stillborn baby that was then buried in the copse of trees by the road on the old Eldridge homestead – land that went on to belong to my parents. The story is that the baby was wrapped in a baby blanket and buried shortly after being stillborn.

Later I did do more research and after realizing that Ella and Edwin’s parents got married in 1861 I looked very closely at the birth date. I’m now sure it’s really 1862. Stillbirth explains the mystery.

In history the United States was founded based on separation of Church and State. A large part of the reasons for the country involved people leaving England because the King of England was forcing his religion on the people within the country. Ultimately a new country was founded to allow for that freedom and to protect those rights it was expressly written into the constitution that the people were free to choose. (And this means choose what religion they believe in without being forced to follow anther’s beliefs. ) To ensure this freedom the government. To gain these rights the people went to war with the King of England and fought for our freedom.

To ensure that these rights were maintained and separation of church and state occurred – some states put in place laws that no ministers could serve office. My ancestor being the first minister thrown out of office as a minister because of this. We currently have people making the news making the argument that – People that don’t follow their religious beliefs can just go to another county (if you read country hear we can just go back over 200 years)….

I too am really getting tired of hearing the said person’s name and hearing her all over the news. I’ve even seen opinion pages comparing her to Rosa Parks (The page said let Christians move to the front of the bus)…. The author obvious knows nothing about Rosa Parks history….. 1. her seat was in the colored section in the front of the bus. 2. she didn’t give up her seat because she was tired – it had nothing to do with moving from the back of the bus to the front. The segregation case was Brown vs. the Board of Education and involved school busing to the ‘white schools’.

I do want to quit hearing this in the news, but I also want everyone to have equal rights under the law. The current case going on isn’t a case of someone being forced not to practice her own religion – it’s a case of someone trying to force others to practice her religion.

Whatever you believe in…. I think everyone should agree that kindness to strangers and treat others and you would like them to treat you should play into this. I can’t think of one person I know that would say they haven’t done something at one point of another that they would do differently if doing it again.

I am including the Lindsey Corbley exert here from “A Standard History of Champaign County Illinois”. I find it very interesting that Edward isn’t mentioned here, yet there is land in Vermilion County (Edward owned land with his brother) and Cannon is mentioned – Edward’s land sold when it was foreclosed on to Cannon. I still keep thinking there is so much to the story!

LINDSEY CORBLY. The activities of Lindsey Corbly go far back into the pioneer history of Champaign County. He was here over sixty years ago and he endured the ordeals of life on the frontier. The years have visited his efforts with abundant prosperity. Material possessions have been only part of the riches of his experience. He has lived a life of honor, peace and industry, and now in his declining years, in his home at Paxton, he enjoys the esteem of both old and young.

Mr. Corbly was born at Garrard’s Fort in Greene County, Pennsylvania, the third son of William and Rebecca (Stephens) Corbly, also natives of Pennsylvania. The records of the Corbly family go far back into pioneer days of the Pennsylvania colony. His grandfather, Rev. John Corbly, was a pioneer Baptist minister along the frontier line of western Pennsylvania. He was a native of England, but had come to America before the Revolution and first settled in western Virginia and afterwards in Greene County, Pennsylvania. He was instrumental in building the first church at Garrard’s Fort. This was a log building and other edifices followed it, while in 1909 the congregation erected their fourth church home, a brick edifice dedicated that year and named the John Corbly Memorial Church. The name was fittingly bestowed to honor one of the most devoted churchmen of the West. The proposition had been long discussed as to some appropriate memorial to this good and worthy man, and it was finally decided to erect a church which would stand for years and recall his good deeds and unselfish labors.

Rev. John Corbly was three times married. His first wife was a cousin of President Tvler. The fate of his second wife will be mentioned presently. His third wife was a daughter of Colonel Andrew Lynn, who served with that rank in the Revolutionary War. It was his daughter Nancy Ann who married Rev. John Corbly, and she was the grandmother of Mr. Lindsey Corbly of Champaign County. Mr. Corbly in his home at Paxton has a book, entitled “Chronicles of Border Warfare,” published at Clarksburg, Virginia, in 1831. The pages of that work contain the record of a tragic incident in which Rev. John Corbly figured. It occurred on Muddy Creek, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1781. He and his wife and five children were on the way to church, the wife and children preceding, when a band of savages sprang up from the roadside and fell upon Mrs. Corbly and the children. The infant in the mother’s arms was the first victim. The mother was then struck several severe blows, and not falling, was shot through the body by a savage who had chased her husband. A little son six years old and two girls, two and four years of age, were also victims of the savage onslaught. The oldest daughter concealed herself in a fallen log and witnessed all that transpired. She came out before the Indians had retired, and was caught and slain. The only survivors of the massacre were the father and the two younger daughters, who by careful nursing were restored. Both of them grew up, though one died later as a result of the horrible treatment she had received. The other lived, married and reared a large family.

From this and other facts it is clear that the Corblys took a prominent part in the early days of western Pennsylvania. During the Centennial year a paper was published devoted to the prominent pioneer families of Pennsylvania and the Corblys were mentioned in the record. Mr. Lindsey Corbly’s parents spent their lives in Pennsylvania and his father died in 1875 and his mother in 1855. Mr. Corbly acquired his education chiefly in the school of experience, and since the age of sixteen has made his own way in the world. For a time he worked for an uncle who had extensive interests as a live stock man in Ohio. While there he was paid wages of $7 a month. He soon became known as the “boss cattle driver” for his uncle. In those days live stock was never sent by railroad, but always driven overland. One of Mr. Corbly’s early experiences was taking a large herd of stock from Missouri to Philadelphia. Much of the country in the Middle West was then wild and infested with lawless people, and he not only experienced many difficulties in getting his stock safely over the natural difficulties of the road but also had to watch closely against highwaymen who sought his money and life.

Mr. Corbly came to Illinois in 1853. locating in Champaign County, but two years later going to Vermilion County as a farmer. In 1863 he located in Kerr Township of Champaign County and gradually built up a large enterprise as a farmer and stockman. At one time he owned over 1,700 acres of land and his business as a land holder and stockman made his name familiar all over central Illinois.

Mr. Corbly has always manifested a public spirited interest in local affairs. In Kerr Township he served twenty years as township trustee, and was one of the members of the first election board at Gibson City and also a member of the first grand jury of Ford County. He was on the first board of commissioners who divided Ford Countv into townships and was a member of the board of supervisors when the University of Illinois located at Champaign. Politically he began voting as a Whig and became an original Republican at the formation of that party over sixty years ago. He has always been staunchly aligned with this party and has been convinced that the best and most enduring principles of real democracy are expressed through the Republican party. Mr. Corbly has had many notable friendships with leading statesmen and many prominent Republicans, including Joe Cannon, have visited his home. He has always been a great admirer of Lincoln and has had personal acquaintance with Generals Sherman, Sheridan and Halleck. The spicy sayings of Lincoln have been treasured by him and have no doubt had their influence upon his life. One of these maxims which he has often quoted is “never trade horses while crossing the river.”

On moving to Kerr Township Mr. Corbly selected land which would be especially available for his stock interests. There he reared his family, built fine farm buildings, planted shade trees, and many improvements in that section stand as a monument to his labors and early enterprise.

Since December, 1875, Mr. Corbly has been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He entered church work through the influence of J. D. Bodkin, now secretary of the State of Kansas, and Eev. James Goodspeed.

On February 24, 1856, Mr. Corbly married for his first wife Sarah Wood. She was born and reared in Vermilion County, Illinois, a daughter of Henry and Nancy Wood. Six children were born to this union, three of whom died in infancy. Those living are Henry L., William Sherman and James L. Henry L. Corbly married Julia B. Webber. He is now a retired farmer living at Paxton and his children are Mrs. Fay Flagg, Lindsey R. and Gladys. Lindsey Ross Corbly lives in Haywood Township and married Fay Goodwin of Ford County. Gladys Corbly is a sophomore in the Woman’s College of Jacksonville, Illinois.

William Sherman Corbly married Mary A. Yule of Saybrook, McLean County, Illinois, and they reside at Paxton. Their children are : George Y. and Lynn S. George Y. is a farmer in Button Township of Ford County and by his marriage to Jessie Jenkinson has a daughter, Virginia. Lynn S. Corbly is a graduate of the University of Illinois, a successful practicing attorney in Champaign County, and married Marguerite Clark of Paxton. James L. Corbly married Ellen Sheehan of Ludlow. Their children are Frank, Ralph, “Jimmie Lee,” Owen, Ray, Elmer, Marguerite and Pauline (twins), and Irene. Of these Frank married Belle Jackson and they reside on a farm adjoining his father. Owen Corbly married Vesta Wampler and is also a farmer living near his father.

The mother of these children and first wife of Mr. Corbly entered into rest January 17, 1866, after ten years of married life. She was a good woman, a kind neighbor and a loving wife and mother. For his second wife Mr. Corbly married Mary A. Scholl. She was born near Saegerstown, Pennsylvania, daughter of Dr. Peter Scholl and Elizabeth (Woodring) Scholl of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. By Mr. Corbly’s second marriage the children are Fred M., Laura F. and Evelyn. Evelyn is the wife of P. A. Kemp of Los Angeles, California, who is a state officer of the Court of Honor. They have one son, Lynn, twelve years old. The mother of these children passed away March 10, 1907. On June 24, 1909, Mr. Corbly married Mrs. Emily Wait. She was born and reared in Vermilion County, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Copeland, natives of Ohio.

The daughter Laura F. married Oscar H. Wylie, a prominent Ford County lawyer, at Paxton, Illinois, who has filled numerous important public offices and for eight years was prosecuting attorney of Ford County, proving to be a fearless, honest public official. For four years he was Circuit Court clerk and recorder, at the time being one of the youngest officials in the state. Mr. and Mrs. Wylie have the following children: Mac, Howard, Evelyn, Emily and Francis. Mac, Howard and . Evelvn are all graduates of the Paxton High School, and Mac is a student in flip law department of the Northwestern University and also spent three years in DePauw University, in which latter institution Howard is, a student, and in the fall of 1917 Miss Evelyn proposes to enter. The two younger daughters attend the grade schools.

Ever since Mr. Corbly’s eightieth birthday it has been made an occasion of great family interest, one feature being the presentation of an immense bouquet of roses and chrysanthemums, his favorite flower, a blossom for every year, and another being the reading of a birthday poem composed by Mrs. Wylie. On the occasion of his eighty-fourth birthday, this tribute was so beautifully expressed and tenderly conceived that it deserves the prominence of an insertion in this history. In the midst of the loving family circle and with other friends present, Mr. Corbly listened to the following :

“Dear old father, with your beaming face,

Your kindly heart and whole-souled grace,

Your sterling worth as pioneer

Facing hardships without fear,

Always honest and square with the world,

Your banner for good ever unfurled,

That’s a record worth while, I say,

For this, your eighty-fourth birthday.

“Also, dear father, sweet is to me

The memory of thy charity;

Thy childlike faith in God and man,

Surprised at evil where thou didst find;

Hating deceit with all thy heart

Because for you was the honest part,

That’s a record worth while, I say,

For this, your eighty-fourth birthday.

“Again, dear father, I’ll say to thee,

That when you face eternity,

I would thy mantle of Christian love

Of charity like that above,

Should descend on those you love the best,

That our lives with good deeds may be blest,

And that our children may also say

Our records were good on each birthday.”

The record of Mr. Corbly has been such that no history of Champaign

County would be complete without its incorporation. He has stood for

the sound and worthy things of life in every relationship. On every side

may be found witnesses to his unimpeachable integrity and financial

responsibility. Some years ago after a fire in Paxton a few scattered

leaves from the reports of the Dun and Bradstreet Mercantile Credit

Agency were picked up. These gave commercial ratings of different citizens with credit attached of so many thousands of dollars to each one,

and when the name of Mr. Corbly was mentioned the rating was fixed in

the following significant language: “Good for anything he asks for.”

That his word has always been as good as his bond is not only expressive

of his business integrity but to all those other qualities which are sum and

substance of human character.

Mr. and Mrs. Corbly now occupy a pleasant and comfortable home on West State Street in Paxton. There they enjoy the confidence and esteem of a host of friends, and in the setting sun of his life Mr. Corbly has his good wife by his side, also has the solace of his children and the memory of a just and worthy career. It is an unusual retrospect which he enjoys.

He has seen a great and magnificent country develop before his eyes and with a most creditable share in its making on his own part. He has prospered, and at the same time has solved the intricate problems of experience, has reared and educated his children and has given them his own example as a guide to true and loyal citizenship.

My aunt has decided to join the DAR and so this spurred a quest to find all the records for my paternal grandmother’s side of the family. We had already recorded the Corbley bible, but the last three generations needed more documentation. All was going fairly well until my great great grandfather Edward Corbley. Family stories differ on why he vanished and there aren’t a lot of records on him, but they all revolve around livestock that got ill and him losing everything. One story Aunt Ethel told was that Edward Corbley was driving cattle up from Texas when they became ill (she said hoof and mouth disease) and he had to hide from the government… then losing the land and everything to the federal government.

The Corbley Farm was a big farm that included the land across from the high school all the way to the land that included Muncie (there is a street in Muncie named after the Corbleys). One article shows that the Congressman J.G. Cannon purchased the farm in both Champaign and Vermilion counties for $30,000. I’m not sure what the mention of Pearsons and Taft of Chicago means?

From that I can piece together though Edward Corbley went on after the livestock ‘fiasco’ to live in Kansas city, Missouri. He lived there approximately 8 years before visiting his daughter in Illinois and passing away in her home. The article tells that he sold his property and went west when reverence overtook him.

Mary Ann Littler (his wife) is rumored to be buried in Stearns Cemetery in Muncie Illinois with her family, so the thought is that he might be buried in the same cemetery. There isn’t a record of his burial that I can find so far, and the only undocumented tombstones are so worn that they can no longer be identified.

Somewhere the name switched from Corbley to Corbly also. Edward Corbly had a brother Lindsey that was in the new constantly (a lawyer) – so it makes it surprising to me that Edward fell off the books. I did find one mention that Edward and another man were responsible for surveying and laying out the town of Muncie but in a book with the history of Vermilion County, Edward is dropped completely from the history. I’m not completely sure I’m ready to quit searching for the history of what happened to Edward. Most stories though may be lost to time.

From what I’ve found about the livestock disease at that time, Texas cattle were immune to the illness and any land that they inhabited became infected. New cattle brought in to graze on that land then became ill and died off. Several states closed off cattle drive routes and would not allow those cattle to be driven through their states. Shortly after the time I was looking at Illinois closed it’s borders to new Texas cattle. BUT not knowing what was causing the illness, the farmer bringing in the cattle was vilified by neighboring ranchers for killing off huge herds of cattle. My ancestors seems to have been caught up in the bad luck of bringing in the wrong type of cattle at the wrong time.

TEXAS FEVER. Readers of the Veterinarian, an English journal, were informed in June 1868 that a “very subtle and terribly fatal disease” had broken out among cattle in Illinois. The disease killed quickly and was reported to be “fatal in every instance.” The disease was very nearly as fatal as the Veterinarian claimed. Midwestern farmers soon realized that it was associated with longhorn cattle driven north by South Texas ranchers. The Texas cattle appeared healthy, but midwestern cattle, including Panhandle animals, allowed to mix with them or to use a pasture recently vacated by the longhorns, became ill and very often died. Farmers called the disease Texas fever or Texas cattle fever because of its connection with Texas cattle. Other names included Spanish fever and splenic or splenetic fever, from its characteristic lesions of the spleen. The disease is also known as hemoglobinuric fever and red-water fever, and formerly as dry murrain and bloody murrain. To protect their cattle, states along the cattle trails passed quarantine laws routing cattle away from settled areas or restricting the passage of herds to the winter months, when there was less danger from Texas fever. In 1885 Kansas entirely outlawed the driving of Texas cattle across its borders. Kansas, with its central location and rail links with other, more northern markets, was crucial to the Texas cattle-trailing business. The closing of Kansas, together with restrictive legislation passed by many other states, was an important factor in ending the Texas cattle-trailing industry that had flourished for twenty years. (See also, e.g., SHAWNEE TRAIL.)

I almost wonder if in the mention of Texas Fever in Illinois, if the story might be referring to what occurred with Edward Corbly. Corbly moved to Missouri in 1883, leading me to believe that the epidemic with his cattle occurred shortly before that in the 1880 to 1883 time frame – though it could have been as early as the 1870s.

MUNCIE was platted and recorded in 1875, and evidently named by the surveyors, Alexander Bowman and Edward Corbley.

One story is that part of Muncie was handed over to make restitution for the loss of livestock.